I'm seeing a lot of misinformation on the internet everyday. I guess it's part of the package deal when spending a lot of time on social media, with all its AI slop and influencers. I can't address it all, obviously, but there's one recurring thing that's been bugging me for a while now in the food adjacent spaces.

It's the Bay Leaf Thing. What's the bay leaf thing? It's the common idea that this ingredient, so simple and very much present throughout many cuisines, doesn't actually add anything to dishes. It (supposedly) doesn't taste or smell like anything and even if it did, it wouldn't add enough to whatever large pot of food you're making.

I should be honest here: I had this opinion on the matter, in fact frequently omitting them because...why not? It doesn't add anything! ❌WRONG❌

The Proper Way: acquiring, storing and using bay leaves

This will be short and sweet:

• Get yourself some fresh bay leaves, preferably from the farmer's market. You're looking for leaves that are pliable and definitely not crunchy. They should have a nice dark green color. Buy a whole bouquet of it. They should still be on the branch.
• Once home, get yourself a ziploc bag (or any other airtight container of your choice) and take each leave off the branch by pinching at the base and it pulling away following the direction of the stem.
• Place them in a even layer and put that bag/container in the freezer. This only works if you have the kind that's rated to get things from warm to freezing temperatures. If it's just for storage of already frozen goods this might not be a good idea.
• You now have super fresh, super fragrant bay leaves ready to go for the next 6 months. Congratulations! 🎉

To use them you can just drop one, two or three of them (or more if you really want to) in any dish. Do not attempt to blend them, there will be shards of bay leaves in your sauce and it won't be nice. You can however tear them in halves to extract a bit more oils.

What does it actually taste like? (to me)

This is the part that's kind of confusing and important: they do taste like something but I find it hard to describe. It's quite a bit peppery and minty, but while the smell is "sharp" the taste/aroma isn't. It's definitely forward when just by itself but when added to rich broths or long simmered sauces it seems to bring a nice vegetal depth. I think this is where concentration is important. The more concentrated, the more peppery and sharp.

Now I've focused on fresh bay leaves in this article, because that's what I use. However a lot of people will still use the dried version, which is in my opinion too subtle. But it does have the advantage to also be more floral than "minty".

Use cases that you might wanna try

One thing I really like to do with them is purée. Any vegetables purée really, but I find it shines bright with your simple homemade mashed potatoes. Basically just put a leaf or two in the water you're going to boil your potatoes in and takes them out before mashing them. It's off topic but I might suggest also using star anise in there, it really does tastes incredible.

I don't think it's really an original one, but I really like the depth it adds to curry. In particular the japanese variety; it's a particularly sweet kind, so the contrast is welcome.

One case where I don't think it would work so well is in a very plain stew, like a pot-au-feu. I think it would be too present in the overall flavor profile, masking the contrasting of flavors of the different vegetables.